Credit: YouTube/@Gangland_Chronicles

It was 1am on Sunday when police were first alerted to reports of a group of masked males trying to break into cars in Athy, Co Kildare.

When a patrol car arrived at the scene, a BMW sped past them and headed the wrong way up the M9 motorway. Inside were Joey Carthy, 15, Jack Kennedy, 17, Alex McCarthy, 17, Kamil Pustkowski, 17, and Jeremy O’Brien, 18.

Police were ordered not to pursue them, and put a plan in place to deploy a stinger device to bring the car to a halt near the next exit. Instead, the BMW slammed into a Hyundai carrying three sisters in their 20s and 30s, and the seven-year-old son of one of the women.

Alma and Niamh Kinsella were travelling in the front of the car, while Ellie Hendricken was in the back with her nephew on their journey to Dublin airport for a wedding abroad.

The five teenage boys in the BMW died instantly, while the family from Graingecullen in the Hyundai were taken to hospital with serious injuries, where they remain in a critical condition. Attending officers said they would need counselling for years to process what they had seen.

The crash has brought into focus the activities of the “Lucky Dip” gang of car thieves.

Having earned its name because of its apparently random selection of areas to target, the group has around 60 members, the youngest of whom are 14. Many come from impoverished housing estates in the Dublin suburbs, but others are from further afield.

Police believe the gang steals not for profit – with many of the stolen vehicles ending up destroyed – but for the thrill of joyriding and uploading footage to social media for validation and popularity.

In the aftermath of the crash, Justin Kelly, the police commissioner, said: “What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that, in some cases, it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves.”

It is not known whether the teenagers in Sunday morning’s crash were formal members of the Lucky Dip gang.

However, at least three of the teenagers killed had bragged online about driving against the traffic to avoid police, and posted videos on their now-deleted social media pages showing them weaving between lanes or overtaking around busy roundabouts.

One of the teenagers had recently been arrested in relation to a hit-and-run in Carlow, in which a motorcyclist was hit by a stolen Ford Ranger truck.

Some of them had written “Lucky Dip Gang” on their profiles.

Social media videos seen by The Telegraph, including footage taken by one of the dead teenagers, which has now been removed, show boys driving at more than 120mph.

In some, blue police sirens are visible in the background, while the boys – whose faces are covered by emojis to protect their identities – appear to be holding tools that could be used to break into vehicles.

Some had also reposted news articles and social media appeals from the car owners about the thefts, followed by pictures of themselves appearing to stand on top of the stolen cars.

On Monday, Jim O’Callaghan, the Irish justice minister, condemned tech companies for their perceived inaction in taking down “postings that glorify criminal behaviour”.

The Lucky Dip gang first came to the police’s attention in 2022, when a police car was rammed in Cherry Orchard, a southern suburb in Dublin.

In 2024, vehicle thefts in Ireland reached 7,893 incidents – more than double the 2021 figure of 3,951, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The Lucky Dip gang is believed to have played a significant role in the rise in car thefts. By 2025, the police formally classified it as an organised crime group.

The group frequently targets imported Japanese models that lack EU-required immobilisers. The cars the gang has targeted the most are the Toyota Aqua, Nissan March and Honda Fit.

Security footage taken from homes shows masked figures in hoodies and sweatpants lingering around driveways, trying car doors to see whether any are open and appearing to use devices to intercept signals from the remote locking devices or proximity keys inside homes.

The group was linked to around 300 incidents, including robberies, break-ins and car thefts in the first three months of 2025. In 2024, Michael Farrelly, 41, was hit by a stolen car while walking home at around 1am.

Calum McDonagh, 19, was jailed for two years for being a passenger in the car during the incident. He had 91 previous convictions, including for unauthorised taking of vehicles and dangerous driving. The alleged driver, aged 20, has yet to enter a formal plea.

Just a week before the fatal crash on Sunday, a car driving the wrong way on the M50 in Dublin crashed into a 22-year-old man who was driving to work. Eight juveniles were in the car driving against traffic. All occupants were taken to hospital, with one in a serious condition.

In Ireland, children who steal cars are usually dealt with under the Gardaí Youth Diversion Programme for the first few offences. They are likely to receive a caution, rather than a conviction.

Under the Children’s Act, “a period of detention should be imposed only as a measure of last resort” on any child. Some rack up dozens of convictions without any custodial outcome.

The 11 most prolific gang members have received no fewer than 427 charges, according to police figures seen by RTE. On average, that means 39 times each. 

The average age of those identified was 16.

Police said if they continued to offend and were prosecuted, they would nearly always be granted bail pending their court case. They were usually given non-custodial sentences if convicted, because of their ages and because car theft was considered a non-violent crime.

Officers fear chasing after criminals

Police must consider 10 criteria before pursuing a stolen car, with many officers fearing they will face sanctions or even criminal charges if they engage in a pursuit – something police suspect the thieves are aware of.

They had been told not to follow the stolen car before the crash on Sunday, the Garda Representative Association said.

On Monday, Mr O’Callaghan announced the police would receive pursuit training and greater protections when it came to car chases, adding that the transport minister had been considering making deliberately driving the wrong way down a motorway a separate offence.

The grieving families and friends of the boys killed in the crash on Sunday offered tributes to them, attaching photos depicting them as angels.

But Mr O’Callaghan offered little sympathy and condemned them for their “outrageously dangerous criminal behaviour” that caused the crash.

Speaking on Monday at Government Buildings, the minister left others who considered following in the boys’ footsteps a warning: “You’ll end up in jail, or you’ll end up in a grave.”